Hey, history nerds!

I've just  learned about the Civil War/Antebellum Era in history. This era screams American Dream. Now, most people think the Civil War was purely about the abolition of slavery, but it wasn't. It was about states rights and an effort for President Lincoln to preserve the Union. As everyone knows, the abolition of slavery was a product of the Civil War, and the Reconstruction Era was the aftermath of the Civil War. The Reconstruction Era was a huge boost for the American dream (especially and mostly for African-Americans) because this era allowed African-Americans the right  to go to school and to purse real jobs. They were finally "equal" to the whites. (Off topic, but I put equal in quotes because everyone is equal regardless of race, its just because of the reconstruction era and the 13-15th amendments that the whites could see that). This was such a big blow to the supreme court ruling in the Dred Scott case which stated that blacks were basically denied rights such as the right to vote whether they were in a free state or a slave state. Andrew Johnson was the president when this era started, and he started off by taking all the Union land from the military used in the war and redistributed it all to the free slaves so they could have a piece of land to call their own.  Also, he  allowed the southern states to rebuild themselves as they wanted. all males were now allowed to vote as well, no matter if they were white or black as stated by the 15th amendment. Even though there were horrible racial groups such as the KKK, that didn't stop history from taking its course because now all races are held equal, and that's such an incredible thing.

Sources:  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dred-scott-decision

http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/reconstruction